Donald Trump’s former lawyer, fixer, and probably golf caddy Michael Cohen is headed to prison for three years, and the president is not taking it very well.
Cohen is headed to the clink for what the judge called a “smorgasbord of criminal conduct,” including tax evasion, lying to Congress, and most concerning to the president, violating campaign finance laws by setting up a shell company to buy the silence of women who allegedly had affairs with Trump (and submitting false invoices to lie about the loan) as not to freak out Trump’s new evangelical fan base.
Hours later, Trump has finally chimed in about the sentencing on Twitter, and is making even less sense than usual. The president is not disputing that he directed Cohen to make the payments, but he’s insisting that he didn’t know it was illegal, so therefore it wasn’t illegal (???).
He’s not denying directing payments to a Playboy bunny with whom he cheated on his wife, because we live insane times.
He is admitting to having lied to the American people for months, though, which would be a scandal on its own if things still mattered. The fact that the President of the United States’s go-to defense is “I don’t know the law or understand it!!!” is quite concerning.
Someone running to oversee the faithful execution of laws should, well, know the law. Trump has resorted classic Costanza Defense.
It might surprise you to learn that Trump’s hot take is at odds with legal experts and facts.
Trump’s tweets also contradict Cohen’s receipts. Cohen secretly recorded his meeting with Trump plotting to get The National Enquirer to buy the rights to Karen McDougal’s story so they can kill it. Trump says, “we’ll have to pay with cash,” which sounds very legal and very cool.
Another witness against Trump? The National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, Inc., who admitted in a non-prosecution agreement filed by the Justice Department that yes, they were in cahoots with Trump to bury damaging stories for the purposes of influencing the election.
It’s multiple witnesses—and the opinion of the court—against Trump on this one. No wonder Trump is freaking out.
This article was originally published by our partners at someecards.